DON'T VOTE UNTIL YOU READ! UPDATED!!! Cast your vote again!

So, as has been seen, there has been a lot of discussion as to what to do with the SMP servers. A lot of ideas have been voiced and a lot will get put into practice. For starters there will be advertising implemented across all our servers, we will be changing the benefits a player gets from the Contributor rank and various other behind-the-scenes stuff.
The main decisions are yet to made and that is because they have to be made by you, the players. You need to decide what sort of SMP server you want SpA to have. To try and tackle this I am going to condense a whole bunch of ideas into a few options. This will hopefully give us a general theme and direction on which we can focus. Nothing will be final after this but the server WILL change, and it will do it immediately after the 1.3 update which takes place at the end of June or start of July. There will be a period where we have a temp server again while the plugins update but after that, we are heading on with the new. There will be NO POINT coming here to complain that everything is different and its not what you wanted in a months time. Get your say in now and nag everyone you know who visits this server to vote. There will be no going back after this.

So, the options. These range from small changes to what we currently have all the way up to a complete wipe with a new set of ideals. Read them all carefully, make your vote and post about anything within that option you are unhappy about. Hell, post another option entirely if you want. This has to be what the PLAYERS want. It is nothing to be with me, the admin team or SpA Management.

Choice 1A:
Keep things more or less as they are but change the player spawn to bedlam so that new players start there and can just get on with it. If they stick around and want to see the rest of the server they can apply for registered and get access to Hub. This is the MINIMUM that can happen.

Choice 1B:
Same as Choice 1a but in addition: Increase the number of portals to various builds, revise the /home and /spawn commands for ease of transport. Look at implementing Factions in Bedlam.

Choice 2:
Make Bedlam the main map. Keep Hub but remove Homestead, keeping only the Theme Zones as a separate map that will be accessible to certain ranks only. Open up Residence on Bedlam so that builds can be protected (this will likely require a reset of the economy plugin to even the field)

Choice 3A:
A whole new world. A new map with a central Spawn City (not the current one as apparently no one likes it), players markets, protected road network and a limited portaling system. This will be far more like that map that had Iron City on it. (Is everyone clear that with this option, you lose everything you have right now? Its a completely fresh start.)

Choice 3B:
Same as Choice 3A but with Residence and the economy removed. Griefing will still be handled by OPs but no system of purchasable protection would exist (arguments to be made for getting a protected build via donations?).

Choice 4:
The basics. Make a server much like the Temp Maps we have. A protected spawn but few other plugins save those used to make the game tougher. True survival in a pure SMP game. No second maps, no creative, no Themes, no shops or markets or economy.

Choice 5
My idea (which is a combination of a lot of suggestions that you guys made. You can read it here. I know it is not perfect and I am starting to think it needs amending already (like don't blank Homestead completely so we can keep more builds or have a Storage building again so people can take stuff from this server) but I think its a solid option. It is still YOUR choice and YOUR vote though!

That's the lot. If anyone has another option they want adding to the mix then speak up. If there are any other details then feel free to offer suggestions. Please also keep in mind that these suggestion do not cover EVERYTHING. They are core ideas - starters to get us moving. The finer details can be argued out. I would personally recommend, when you vote, that you then make a post saying" I voted for Choice X but I would also add (insert specific thing)" if you think something urgent is missed out.

For reference, here are the result from the last poll:

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

I've moved the old discussions here.

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

[quote="[SpA]Howard"]


Choice 5
My idea (which is a combination of a lot of suggestions that you guys made. You can read it here. I know it is not perfect and I am starting to think it needs amending already (like don't blank Homestead completely so we can keep more builds or have a Storage building again so people can take stuff from this server) but I think its a solid option. It is still YOUR choice and YOUR vote though!

[quote="[SpA]Howard"


Wait so we do get to keep stuff?

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[Halexboom8] Coppertone :3
[adog114] I say that's a winner
[AP4rk3dC4r] I'm sure doing a giant picture of a dog pulling off a girls bathing suit would be popular here...
[Halexboom8] ^^Cat likes those things.

I would vote for your option Howard as you have the expertise and know what your doing while all the other ideas could just crumble, but I guess what I want is the server that I first joined In, the server with iron city and the hub with all the portals and Leo market, although there might of been some problems here and there it was a good server where you could meet/greet new guest easily and it was easy to navigate, sure I don't care if there aren't portals to everyones home that could go but still that's what I would like, but I suppose its like that doctor who thing whoever was your first doctor no mater how hard Somone tries nobody will beat them.

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"Do you hear that?"--Sarge
"Yes, that noise is called water. It is very wet and very sloshy."--Caboose

Well this is what Choice 5 is really. Spawn City, as it now is, will still be used but I want Spawn Town (Iron City, if you will) to be the focus of things. The spawn Bowl is where people will start and you can come back to the City to get to the NPC market or the arena (and maybe the Theme Zones) but everything else will be at the Spawn Town and that is where the focus of the server will be (player markets, portals etc).

FWIW guys, you should note that I still don't think that Choice 5 is a good option, so don't go voting for it just 'cos I proposed it. I think everyone has forgotten what a plague griefing can be and with everyone in the same map, the griefing will be immense. I know others have proposed having a separate "mini Bedlam" in the map but there is just no realistic way of doing that. How would it be walled off? how do you stop guests building everywhere but there? Even if you could get it to work, it will be a really shit experience for the Guests anyway and will drive them off even faster.
Whatever option gets picked, a massive discussion wills till need to be had regarding the Economy, Residence and LWC. These things are there only to make the game harder and to give it longevity. I know everyone complain about the cost of Residence and that "it took 2 weeks to earn enough money to buy my res" but if it wasn't there, what would have happened? You would have built your epic structure in a day or three then stood around bored, terrified of being griefed. Res is there primarily to give you something to do, the protection is secondary.
The core principle of Minecraft is lost in SMP, I feel. You are no longer struggling against the odds, working to fill your world with builds and functionality. In SMP, people need more to keep them around as for some reason, everyone plays it very weirdly. SO few people try and become self-reliant by herding animals or building farms. Most days I just don;t even know what people want from the game as all they do is try and make it into other games by forcing a tonne of plugins onto it.

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

Then this to me seems like the best option, I never really got why people diddnt like the old map sure the portals to everywhere was somthing I wouldn't have but just replace the portals with just 4 portals on each corner of the map and done that would be the server I would like so the closest to that is option 5.

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"Do you hear that?"--Sarge
"Yes, that noise is called water. It is very wet and very sloshy."--Caboose

For those that have voted anything other then option 5(or you can add to option 5 if you like), please explain your reasoning. Your idea could possibly persuade others into deciding the same thing. Simply voting with no reasons isn't helping your thoughts on the server.

Exactly! Also I refuse to believe that anyone has voted for any option with no reservations. There must be things you want adding or changing.

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

The trouble with all this revoting is we're getting dangerously close to compromise. Surely the only point of voting is to leave at least a significant minority of people feeling disenfranchised and annoyed.

When I engage in democracy my goal is to crush the opposition and leave only a small group of elites with absolute power.

It worked for Sparta right.

>.> this post was a tad frivolous. Voted 5, Joan of arc told me to.

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骨

I haven't voted yet, with each choice there seems "to be" something wrong with 1a and 1b is we do need a new map...Im pretty sure all of homestead is pretty much mined out like any other "old" map... The problem with 3a & 3b is we do share a map with guests... Now like I will restate again THERE'S MORE DICKS THAN NICE PEOPLE.... The system we have now seperates them. Nice people get ranks and play good and by the rules.. Dicks stay in bedlam. Now go and say "adog most guest are nice" Well is there more banned guest or active guests? There's a small percentage that the guests will be "nice" and when it happens well GREAT! The problem as howard stated with 5 is true. With 3 & 5 well just be put into bedlam... Well have protections but what if you do forget to protect your house? What do you think it'll look when you come back? Don't you remember bedlam? If you don't it's a living hell. Why would you want to go back to bedlam?

I think that guest should stay in bedlam and just add a few protections to help them a bit.. Maybe give them like a 4 chest lock limit because what guest has more than that? Maybe give them a res but make them not have perms to /res set move at all, because of trolls... As well why do we not have a choice to keep it as it is and just get a new homestead? And if an Admin team is willing to copy builds and items over. It would be great wouldn't it? No one has to start over, no more houses from when the map was created and the player just quitted... Add tpas... The simplest thing to do about transpiration, simple way for people to meet agreeingly. Add "warps"... another way to get around easily and quicker, and easy for guests to pick up on. Add stuff like an pvp arena <--- Juncos pvp arena is a hit isn't it? Add prize to the winners like something stupid like a golden nugget? Add an "official" spleef arena, cause we got none, and it's possibly the most popular game Of minecraft... Add a new spawn in bedlam with markets like Islaun (sorry I still can't spell that) add maybe like houses for sale at spawn? Just to keep the money going around.. Make the spawn some what like Leo's castle but easier to navigate around in (tbh I probably could get lost in there easily and I've been there like a thousand times) Add an NPC trading center, so players can trade with villagers with out people killing them..... Well bye for now! And that's the longest thing I've written on the forums while using the most annoying thing to type with! An IPod...

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[Halexboom8] Coppertone :3
[adog114] I say that's a winner
[AP4rk3dC4r] I'm sure doing a giant picture of a dog pulling off a girls bathing suit would be popular here...
[Halexboom8] ^^Cat likes those things.

I'll just go over these step by step.
As Howard stated a lot of times, getting a new map solves nothing. it only pisses off people more.
As I've seen you react lately I'm beginning to think you have some kind of phobia of either guests or having to do something to protect your shit. Maybe there would be more nice people on our server if we were nicer to them. Nice people quit because we're not nice to them, we put them in a bowl, tell them to go to go straight to bedlam and don't tell them about the possibility to register. They then have to stay focused to find how they need to go to bedlam and meanwhile they can fall off into the ocean. When they do reach bedlam they think "FINALLY! I can start mining!". Then get either griefed or killed almost always.

Boy do I wonder why we don't have many nice guests that stick and get registered
And this is what you want guests to live in? And if you do forget to protect your house it really sucks for you but it's your own fault.
And again, Howard has stated this enough times. BEDLAM WILL NOT GET LWC OR RESIDENCE. If guests can protect there the map would be filled with locks from people that have left because, guess what, bedlam is shit for them.
Howard has said no to transferring builds. If you want a new map but want to keep your builds you're insane. It's either a map or your builds.
People being able to just TP around the place is just bad. In the old times people walked and didn't have a problem with it, why should they have now?
Who would want to play in an arena for a shitty price now really?




Now I do have a suggestion of my own to add to 5. It's been suggested in the past and has always been denied, what if we would use minecart tracks for transportation? It isn't a TP so people have to wait, and they can stop wherever they want. They can see a bit of landscape as well. Just an idea and I'd really like it being implemented. Especially without bedlam and possibly the nether.

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What are you looking at?

:L At least I had the balls to give my opinion but thanks heldplayer for telling me how shitty my suggestions are.

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[Halexboom8] Coppertone :3
[adog114] I say that's a winner
[AP4rk3dC4r] I'm sure doing a giant picture of a dog pulling off a girls bathing suit would be popular here...
[Halexboom8] ^^Cat likes those things.

[This kind of text in the quote below represents my thoughts and shit. I'm too lazy to quote every point he made...]

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https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL502D6BAD7E3A5EB8 – My compositions :U
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“If I myself had to portray the term 'people' by drawing it, I'd draw a mere gaping mouth, a clamouring mouth.” ― Pentti Linkola.

adog you have a very warped view of SMP. You want players here as long as they don't annoy you and you want protections as long as you don;t have to use them and you expect the admin staff to run around restoring your work if it gets griefed plus you cannot be arsed to walk more than five steps so need to have tpa.

Its not just that you have no idea of the impact your idea would have it is that, by the sound of it, you don't even want to be playing SMP. The start S is kinda important.

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

I do apparently have a "warped" idea of smp. I dont want to lose my town already Im not even half way done with it and were talking about a new map? Id like to finish it. I do now see how tpas are useless when you just can walk. I do want to play SMP, and if you didnt notice Im one of the most active players who play smp. I do know how to survive or I wouldn't have all the stuff I have.

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[Halexboom8] Coppertone :3
[adog114] I say that's a winner
[AP4rk3dC4r] I'm sure doing a giant picture of a dog pulling off a girls bathing suit would be popular here...
[Halexboom8] ^^Cat likes those things.

As well we do run Bukkit right? Isnt that a "warped" smp? Plugins and etc.

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[Halexboom8] Coppertone :3
[adog114] I say that's a winner
[AP4rk3dC4r] I'm sure doing a giant picture of a dog pulling off a girls bathing suit would be popular here...
[Halexboom8] ^^Cat likes those things.

No, YOU are talking about a new map. In fact you declared that it is essential as you believe it is mined out. Of course this requires for you to ignore the fact that the map is less than 20% covered and less than 3% mined out, but hey, what do I know?

As to using bukkit - that changes nothing. SMP is still SMP no matter the server software. DOn't try and argue nonsense issues

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

Sigh, why does everyone want to make a town? A town that no-one will use... Complete waste of space...
You don't have to know how to survive to get resources and equipment - you just have to know how to acquire them.

P.S. You should edit your posts instead of making new ones :U

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https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL502D6BAD7E3A5EB8 – My compositions :U
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“If I myself had to portray the term 'people' by drawing it, I'd draw a mere gaping mouth, a clamouring mouth.” ― Pentti Linkola.

Hear hear! One man towns are the dumbest fucking thing in MC, beaten only by idiots who make houses and hotels in FB. It just baffles me...

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

:L
My town is actually successful...

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[Halexboom8] Coppertone :3
[adog114] I say that's a winner
[AP4rk3dC4r] I'm sure doing a giant picture of a dog pulling off a girls bathing suit would be popular here...
[Halexboom8] ^^Cat likes those things.

But our point is, why set out to build a town THEN populate it. The whole point of MC is to build. Those who would buy a pre-made house in a pre-made town need their head reading...

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

k. Sorry I'm being bitchy by the way I just woke up :L

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[Halexboom8] Coppertone :3
[adog114] I say that's a winner
[AP4rk3dC4r] I'm sure doing a giant picture of a dog pulling off a girls bathing suit would be popular here...
[Halexboom8] ^^Cat likes those things.

You're not the bitch here, actually. We are. That's our job. And waking up is no excuse :U

Right, so I checked your town, but I still don't like the way it is - just as I don't like any of the other big cities/towns. They're all just waste of space... Waste... Of space... Space of waste... Think big, do small. Then again, this isn't my server and it's not my space, so what do I care.

I still remember the good ol' times when one had to apply for a big build (read: "town"). Sure, my late Valley was a safe haven for folks, I had pre-made rooms and I made residences for them and it was quite popular too. I realize now how in vain it all was :U

I also see how this conversation is slipping away from "everyone needs to vote on this" and related discussion.

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https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL502D6BAD7E3A5EB8 – My compositions :U
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“If I myself had to portray the term 'people' by drawing it, I'd draw a mere gaping mouth, a clamouring mouth.” ― Pentti Linkola.

I have no issue with big builds. The issue is a) people never protect them (then whine when griefed) and b) everyone dashes on, runs 10 feet and builds a town on their own, specifically to ask other players to join them. Other players join them and, 10 whole seconds later, stupid, childish fights break out.

We've seen this a thousand times and 90% of the population is guilty of it. It's like watching a bunch of toddlers have a tantrum and it gets FUCKING TIRESOME.

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

I would protect my town if A) I had more res's B)I had enough money C) If it didnt cost so much.
And yes people do build like 10 blocks away from my town to make another town but it helps that most of my town is in the ocean. I try not to encounter any of these problems unless it becomes an issue to my town, like the person is spamming his/her town in my town or saying mines shitty.

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[Halexboom8] Coppertone :3
[adog114] I say that's a winner
[AP4rk3dC4r] I'm sure doing a giant picture of a dog pulling off a girls bathing suit would be popular here...
[Halexboom8] ^^Cat likes those things.

Creating residences for small/moderate areas isn't expensive, it's just the way it should be. Trying to protect an entire town means you will have to slay Creepers all day long, non-stop. Takes the juice out of you, eh? I encountered the same problem in the old days, and we ended up increasing the max. number of residences per player. I doubt we're going to do it again, since there are ways around it (= don't make big builds you can't protect / zone a huge chunk instead).

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https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL502D6BAD7E3A5EB8 – My compositions :U
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“If I myself had to portray the term 'people' by drawing it, I'd draw a mere gaping mouth, a clamouring mouth.” ― Pentti Linkola.

Well then the simple fact is the Res is working as designed. If you cannot afford to Res what you have built, you are building too much for one person.
In SMP there has to be something stopping you just building forever as the base materials are, after all, free and Res is it for us. We can;t have every player building something as big as they like - we'd need a map 100,000 blocks wide.

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

To solve the griefing issue Bedlamers could maybe lock blocks or something i really dont want the homestead removed or we come have portals to different homesteads one to the old and other to new ones! that way people who want to keep homestead can go through one portal other who dont can go through another portal to a new homestead! with the spawn matter i reckon we could change it like first a clear direction to the portals that way its easy and a proper tutorial on how to get registered ranks on YouTube that way we can just send people to that video and they can follow it get a rank and build in homestead that way we can have less complaints about bedlam and griefing situation! I am also helping [OP] _BlueFlame_ with his project he needs a massive farm which is built at my house i really need it to stay or get copied over for him! It is a massive 100x100 wheat farm that will take ages to restart and build again!

I hope this really helps and you take comsideration to my ideas

Kind Regards,

Bluebsy

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I am a blue dog, i bark a lot, poop, and pee on fire hydrants. If you annoy me, you will be the new fire hydrant!

hey howard i voted urs since its all together but i dont like the fact that griefing can be done,and no res, and i also dont like the fact that we lose our items
i suggest that the res will stay, and the items that are in our iventory will stay with us,if u took this to consideration,thanks
thank u howard

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There is a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.

Have to agree with Choice 5. It reminds me a little of the server as it once was.

Not only that, but it treats our guests as people we actually want to stay, not as Fresh Fish walking into a world of Navy Seals.
Having everyone on the same map just feels more Minecrafty.
Ranks won't be a requirement for new players. Who wants to jump onto a foreign server to check it out, but have to apply on a forum and wait for approval before you even get to see any of the cool builds people make? Isn't that one of the best parts of Minecraft?